Avoiding jail pays off: diverting people with mental illnesses out of prison takes commitment from the community along with adequate funding.

• Author: Steverman, Sarah

Community mental health care can be costly, but it is far cheaper for states than incarceration. It costs around $26 a day to treat someone in a community mental health program, but it can cost more than $65 a day to keep them in jail. And states can tap federal resources to help pay for community mental health services. The vast majority of prison costs, however, falls on the state.

Keeping people with serious mental health needs out of criminal justice systems requires a network of community mental health services. Without good treatment, people with serious mental illnesses often end up in difficult and dangerous situations. Those suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and other serious mental health disorders, can have delusional thoughts, hallucinations, extreme moods and other debilitating symptoms. These symptoms can cause a person to make decisions he normally wouldn't. Sometimes it leads to unlawful behavior.

When adults with serious mental illnesses commit low-level misdemeanors like loitering, public intoxication and panhandling, connecting them to mental health services is better than a stay in jail for both them and the community.

Intervening on behalf of an offender with mental illness can take place at different points injustice proceedings. Police programs bring offenders to a mental health agency or crisis center instead of putting them in jail. Some jails have mental health workers from the local community agency onsite, making assessments easier and quicker while avoiding pre-trial expenses. Other programs are based on a court model, which requires a mental health agency to help identify alternative sentencing recommendations.

Despite variations in diversion programs, all have a common factor: A mental health worker performs an assessment and helps develop an individual treatment plan to get the offender on the right track and to help the justice system monitor his or her progress.

The treatment plans outline what community services the individual will participate in, where he will live, how his medications will be monitored, and how often he will report to his mental health agency and the court. The plan sets recovery goals and outlines the steps to take. The plan also outlines the responsibility of the mental health agency and courts to monitor the individual.

Some plans use "assertive community treatment" for people with serious mental illness. ACT team members are available 24 hours a day and...